The Thing About Jellyfish meets The Stars Beneath Our Feet in this story about loss, grief, and finding the courage to discover one's identity. 12-year-old Caroline Murphy is a Hurricane Child. As King's friendship with Sandy is reignited, he's forced to confront questions about himself and the reality of his brother's death. first love, and finding self-acceptance from National Book Award winning author Kacen Callender. 'You don't want anyone to think you're gay too, do you?'īut when Sandy goes missing, sparking a town-wide search, and King finds his former best friend hiding in a tent in his backyard, he agrees to help Sandy escape from his abusive father, and the two begin an adventure as they build their own private paradise down by the bayou and among the dragonflies. But just days before he died, Khalid told King to end their friendship, after overhearing a secret about Sandy-that he thinks he might be gay. It would be easier if King could talk with his best friend, Sandy Sanders. Khalid still visits in dreams, and King must keep these secrets to himself as he watches grief transform his family. When Khalid unexpectedly passed away, he shed what was his first skin for another to live down by the bayou in their small Louisiana town. Hurricane Child went on to win the award.

Their fantasy novel, Queen of the Conquered, is the 2020 winner of the World Fantasy Award and King and the Dragonflies won the 2020 National Book Award for. Both Hurricane Child and Callender's young adult debut, This is Kind of an Epic Love Story, were nominated for a 2019 Lambda Literary Award in the category LGBTQ Children's/Young Adult. Twelve-year-old Kingston James is sure his brother Khalid has turned into a dragonfly. Kacen Callender is a Saint Thomian author of children's fiction and fantasy, best known for their Stonewall Book Award and Lambda Literary Award-winning middle grade debut Hurricane Child. In a small but turbulent Louisiana town, one boy's grief takes him beyond the bayous of his backyard, to learn that there is no right way to be yourself.

Hurricane Child by Kacen Callender